Work

The Approach

In 2018, the change in approach for Heineken® Live Your Music was to celebrate the power of music – how it connects us to each other, to new sounds, to different perspectives and epic experiences.

It was imperative that this came through in all of our festival and live music activations, including: Longitude, Indiependence and Electric Picnic. Moving away from a predominantly EDM line-up of previous years, we implemented a far more diverse line-up covering a plethora of genres and live performances, opening music fans up to new sounds and experiences.

Outside of the festival and live space, the challenge was to connect with our audience in an authentic and relevant way, whilst communicating the Heineken® POV on music in 2018. Having secured important radio sponsorship deals with our media partners Starcom, we wanted to create a Heineken®-owned content series that would excite and interest our audience outside of the live space. This keeps the Heineken® music brand alive year-round, not just during the festival period.

The Idea

Thus, The Sync Sessions with Róisín Murphy was born – a six-part podcast series hosted by one of Ireland’s most influential and iconic music exports, Róisín Murphy, in conjunction with Heineken® Live Your Music. Each episode features a new artist, from a different genre, exploring what it is about music that brings everyone together in sync, and shows us a new view on the world. Here, music fans gain a fresh perspective on music and the life of the artists, as they allow themselves to ‘sync’ into the unknown and walk away feeling inspired about the role music can play in their own lives, if they open their minds to it.

The Sync Sessions with Róisín Murphy was launched in Dublin in September with a media day and photoshoot, following the recording of the first three episodes. Media interest was at fever pitch, with blanket coverage secured across print, digital and broadcast media.

The first episode, featuring Groove Armada, went straight in at number 1 in the music podcast chart in iTunes. The Sync Sessions was made available on iTunes, Android, or wherever podcasts are available or can be accessed by visiting www.heinekenmusic.ie.

The Output

Festivals

Alongside Exhibit Design Agency, we created best-in-class activations at Ireland’s top music festivals for Heineken® Live Your Music featuring diverse line ups, incredible staging and world-class lighting rigs.

The Sync Sessions with Róisín Murphy

We created and managed a brand-new podcast programme for Heineken®, The Sync Sessions, bringing the brand into the podcast space – a new, innovative way to engage with Heineken’s® music fans.

Released monthly across multiple podcast platforms, each episode has attracted thousands of listeners not just from Ireland, but from around the globe, gaining rave reviews in the process for Róisín’s honest, candid and hugely entertaining interview style.

For each episode we work with Heineken® and Róisín to bring internationally acclaimed guest artists such as Groove Armada, Little Dragon, Django Django, Metronomy, Paigey Cakey and Daniel Avery to The Sync Sessions. Each artist/band also chose ten genre-spanning tracks that were hugely influential in their career. These songs are then added to The Sync Sessions playlist on Róisín’s own Spotify channel for listeners of the podcast to check out.

The Sync Sessions presents the listeners with real honest artist-to-artist chats – the kind of conversations that our music fans cannot get elsewhere. It has also presented Heineken® Music fans with a new, deeper engagement that delivers against the brand’s Live Your Music idea.

The Outcome

2018 was an incredible year for Heineken® Live Your Music, with the brand’s association with music score increasing by four points in 2018.

Research carried out at Electric Picnic showed:

Heineken® is the Number 1 brand associated with Longitude 2018.

When asked which brands helped make your experience at Longitude a great one? Heineken® 50%, ahead of Red Bull 21% and, Bacardi 21%.

At EP, 86% agreed or strongly agreed that Heineken® is committed to making music experiences better after experiencing LYM.

81% felt like LYM opened them up to new acts or experiences.

93% had a positive experience at the activation (less than 1% having a negative experience). Overall the average experience rating given = 4.44 out of 5.

We exceeded PR Reach KPIs by 100% for Electric Picnic comms.

Over 63% of people surveyed had heard about the activation before coming to EP (mainly through social media, PR, acts that were playing, from being there previously and friends).

LYM was a very sociable space, with the majority (32%) of attendees visiting LYM with more than 8 other people.

The positive social sentiment towards Heineken’s® activation at EP festival lit up our Instagram page.

Heineken® continues to have the most disruptive and innovative real-time social in the festival space, capturing the energy for those at home and exceeding all reach KPIs.